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Social Exclusion based on Paternity and Caste

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Social Exclusion based on Paternity and Caste!

In India, social exclusion is mainly based on paternity and caste. Paternity breeds gender inequality and social exclusion of weaker sections. It is closely associated with the discriminatory practices and inequality embedded in the institution of caste.

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Inequality is the organizing principle of the caste-based hierarchy, which spews discrimination and has kept numerous groups outside the gamut of Hindu social life. The rigid barriers of caste not only practise the most pungent form of exclusion but also regulate economic and social life.

The salient features of social exclusion on the basis of caste are social stratification, social inequality, hierarchy and hegemony. The caste system’s fundamental characteristics of fixed civil, cultural and economic rights for each caste, with restrictions for change, imply ‘forced exclusion of one caste’ from the rights of other castes, or from undertaking the occupa­tions of other castes (Ambedkar, 1917).

Caste-based discrimination and exclusion occur mainly in the following spheres:

1. Untouchables or so-called dalits faced discrimination in the use of public services such as public roads, gardens, temples, schools, health and other public services.

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2. In the political sphere, these people were excluded from decision-making process.

3. They faced physical (residential) segregation or general societal exclusion. They were boycotted.

4. In economic spheres exclusion is practised in various ways. It operates through market and non-market transitions and exchange.

Firstly, it is practised through the denial of access to hiring for jobs, in sale or purchase of leasing of land, in the factor inputs, and in commodities and consumer goods. Secondly, as noted economist Amartya Sen has said, discrimination can occur through unfavourable inclusion, i.e., through differ­ential treatment in terms and conditions of contract.

As a result, discriminated groups can get lower prices for the goods that they sell and could pay higher prices for the goods that they buy as compared with the market price or the price paid by other groups. Thirdly, discrimination can occur in terms of access to social needs supplied by the government or public institutions or by private institutions in education, housing, health (hospitals, etc.) and many other spheres.

Fourthly, a group (particularly the untouchables) may face discrimi­nation from participation in certain categories of jobs (such as the sweeper is being excluded from inside household jobs) because of notions of purity and pollution attached with occupations and engagements. Lastly, social exclusion leads to economic poverty and a poorer sense of well-being.

According to a recent UN report (2012) of a group of independent experts, more than 260 million people across the world are still victims of human rights abuses due to caste-based discrimination. The report says Caste-based discrimination remains widespread and deeply rooted, its victims face structural discrimination, marginalization and systematic exclusion and the level of impunity is very high.

This form (caste-based) of discrimination entails gross and wide-ranging human rights abuses, including brutal forms of violence. This group experiences social and economic exclusion, segregation in housing, limited access to basic services, including water and segregation and employment, and work in conditions similar to slavery.

Historically, the class system classified people by their occupation and status. Each caste had a specific place in the hierarchy of social status. However, since the 19th century, the link between caste and occupation has become less rigid as it became easier for people to change occupation. This change was brought about by many factors like education, science and technology and economic boom since the early 1990s (i.e., after adoption of the policy of liberalization).

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To solve the problem of caste-based discrimination, two years age, Nepal adopted the caste-based discrimination and untouchability bill, a landmark law that protects the rights of dalits (weaker sections of the society). Recently, the British government enacted the Equality Act that would cover caste-based discrimination also to protect dalits in diaspora communities.